"Let us be silent, so that we may hear the whisper of God" Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~~ Several years ago, I started writing down all the amazing ways God used my day to day activities, children, family, friends and nature to teach me. The more I wrote, the more I noticed God in my daily life. It became an exercise of the heart and grew my relationship with Christ in a way I had never experienced. I began to hear God whisper to my heart His desires and lessons for me. I hope that reading some of my stories will encourage you stop and listen for His whisper!

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Monthly Archives: April 2014

Fear was on my heart for my last post. I shared a call to action to turn off the faucet of fear in our lives.

“The faucet of fear can only be turned off when God is our focus. When God is at our center, the rest that revolves around Him will fall into place. Maybe not the place we wanted, but His place and nothing stops His plan. God will carry out His will, with or without our peace and with our without our idols. I can promise only this – that along the way, when things don’t go the way we wanted them to go, happen when we wanted to happen or transpire as quickly as we hoped, it will be only His peace and love that will bring us comfort and faith so that fear doesn’t overtake us. We will remain steadfast through trial and stormy gale when the Savior is our Rock and one true focus.”

God often puts a topic on my heart that He wants me to work on or dig deeper into for personal reasons or for others. I know what the themes are because over and over again, He places messages, scriptures, stories and people in my life that pertain to the topic. Once again, He came through as I found this amazing video from Christie Love, a dear friend and founder of LeadHer ministries . . . . on FEAR, of course.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. Psalm 40:3

I think it’s time for a call to action. An action that is vital to living out who we are in Christ instead of simmering in the lies of Satan. One, to recognize that we all have idols. Two, that at the root of every idol is fear. A fear that grows and pours into our hearts, overtakes our joy and trust in God if we allow it to go undetected. I wanted to take just a minute to today to list just a few idols that can cause, as stated in Job 4:14 Fear and trembling to seize us and made all our bones shake.

The definition of idol is: “a greatly loved or admired person, a picture or object worshipped as a god.” We pretty much get that second part and I hope we don’t have any golden cows, sun’s or oxen hidden in our closets that we pray to every night. That is a whole other blog. What I want to focus on are the idols we don’t realize consume more of our thoughts, admiration and love than our Heavenly Father. These are just the tip of the ice burg, but a great place to start checking for some deep-rooted fears. I promise where you find idols, you find fear. Let’s take a look.

1. Our Men/Marriages ~ When we idolize our men/marriages the fears that can exist are: What if he leaves me? What if he finds someone else he loves more? What if he doesn’t think I’m pretty or smart enough now that I stay at home with our kids?

2. Our Children ~ When we idolize our children the fears that can exist are: What if they hang out with the wrong crowd? What if they hear, see or do something morally bad? What if they don’t get a good job? What if they aren’t good enough at sports or pretty enough to fit in? What if they get hurt or sick?

3: Our Image (social or physical): When we idolize our image the fears that can exist are: What if everyone else looks better than me at the party? What if my husband leaves me for someone thinner? What if I don’t get invited to the party and everyone else does? What if everyone else is able to participate and I’m not?

4: Financial Status: When we idolize our finances the fears that can exist are: How will pay the bills, send the kids to camp like their friends, go on vacation, out to eat with our friends? How will we fit in if we don’t have the money to take part in things? Who will take care of and pay for me when I’m older if I don’t save?

The sad, but VERY true fact is that making these things (and whatever else we have on our list) idols doesn’t mean we have more control over them. It doesn’t mean we can protect them, make them perfect or keep them they way we think they should be. That is Satan’s lie. His lies create a diversion for us . . he deludes us into thinking that if we worry or fear ourselves to death over these idols we can control and protect them.

BUT THE TRUTH . . . no amount of fear or thought of control can lead to the protection or guarantee all will end up the way we want it to. The faucet of fear can only be turned off when God is our focus. When God is at our center, the rest that revolves around Him will fall into place. Maybe not the place we wanted, but His place and nothing stops His plan. God will carry out His will, with or without our peace and with our without our idols. I can promise only this – that along the way, when things don’t go the way we wanted them to go, happen when we wanted to happen or transpire as quickly as we hoped, it will be only His peace and love that will bring us comfort and faith so that fear doesn’t overtake us. We will remain steadfast through trial and stormy gale when the Savior is our Rock and one true focus.

Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes Psalm 112:6-8

He is asking us to take up our cross and be nailed to it. He has already taken care of that for each of us because He loves us so dearly. However, He is asking us to put down our idols, fear, distrust and condemnation to look to Him for all our desires, blessings and direction.

I’ve never posted anything written by my daughter before, but I was so proud of her latest paper I had to post it. It’s not on Shakespeare, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea or the symbolism in poetry. However, it is on character. In this case, the character of a tailor who tricks his friends to achieve selfish worldly desires. I adore how she tied in scripture (so much better than Wikipedia) to back up her points and recognized that these character traits can lead to the destruction of many things: relationships, trust, honor, love, friendships. It is such a great reminder for me (and all of us) that the tug of the world never stops. We must fight hard against the current of materialism, worldly idols and selfish desires by keeping our eyes fixed to the cross. I pray we all learn a little from the story of the tailor. So, without further ado. . .

Folly of Fouls by Emma Cain

“Coveting wickedness, deceit, wickedness, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things from within and they defile a person.” Mark 7:22-23

“The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving.” Proverbs 14:9

Throughout the story, the tailor was not an admirable man. First and foremost, the tailor was extremely deceitful. Purposely, he did not clarify that the evil enemies he spoke of were flies. This led everyone to the assumption that the enemies he defeated were menacing giants and that he was an incredibly brave and strong hero. Deceiving the people as he did, shows he is not a man of good and true character. When a person is deceitful and lies willing it is difficult to build trust and admiration for that person. Deceit will also corrode the heart of all good.

“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” Proverbs 8:13

In addition to deceitfulness, the tailor is overcome with pride. He proves this when he continues to lie to make himself look better, even making a beautiful boastful belt with the words “Seven In One Blow” boldly written in italics for all to see. When we earnestly seek God, He makes it clear that He doesn’t honor the sin of pride. Harming others is certain when we let pride enter into our lives and guide our decisions as they tailor did. Pride will lead only to the destruction of families, friendships, trust and our relationship with God.

“Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates brides will live.” Proverbs 15:27

The deceit and pride that harbored in the tailor’s heart led to the need to have more than he needed. Unfortunately, greed was rooted in his heart. Undeserving, he pressed forward with his lies. Tricking those around him became a natural thing to do so that he could have half of the kingdom and a beautiful princess. Although the tailor seemed honest on the outside, the tailor’s need for material items overcame his capacity to be a kind, loyal and honest man. He had a heart of stone. For one who is actually deserving of the great gifts the king bestowed upon him would never act in this way.

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Take me back to

1 Kings 19:11-12

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.